Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Bennett CerfBennett Cerf
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Session:         Page of 1029

said, “You're not going to make a joke out of my wedding.” Very meekly, Ross put down the rusty old gun. Phyllis says that I have exaggerated this story terribly. Although he did bring the gun, she says that none of this other stuff happened.

Anyway, after that we had a wedding luncheon at the Ritz Tower. We had about thirty people--just very close friends of both of us. It was no great ceremony at all.

We went on our honeymoon to Washington, D.C. We started at Washington and then went on to Gettysburg and the Skyline Drive and Williamsburg and ended up our honeymoon at Virginia Beach and came back to New York. In Washington we had the privilege of having at our beck and call for our use the private automobile of J. Edgar Hoover because J. Edgar Hoover often squired Lela Rogers, Ginger's mother.

He would come up to New York and demand Lela's time, which she would give him if she happened to be in the mood. But there was one wonderful episode. J. Edgar arrived with Tolson, his assistant, one weekend and called up Lela. He had come on the spur of the moment. He wanted her to go out with him. She said, “I can't. I'm going away for the weekend.” This annoyed Mr. Hoover very much, and he demanded to know where she was going. She said, “I won't tell you.” He said, “You've got to tell me.” She said, “You're the head of the FBI. Find me.” Finally Hoover hung up, very angry. As a matter of fact, where Lela was going was up to Ross's.

That Sunday night they came down to town, and, as most of us did in those days, went to the Stork Club for supper.





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help